When Christina got into Mark’s car, she was more relaxed than she thought possible. It wasn’t a fancy car, but an ordinary Toyota sedan, very much like the one her parents owned. The interior was almost the same.
She gave Mark directions to her apartment. Partway through her discourse Mark stopped her. “Couldn’t you just give me the address? It seems like we’re just following the number twelve bus route.”
Christina shuddered. They were following the number twelve bus route. She wasn’t very familiar with the city, even though she had lived there for almost a year, and she didn’t know how to get anywhere without taking the bus. She blushed and gave him the address.
Mark changed lanes and look them onto a much faster-moving road. Apparently, they had really been going the slow way.
Finally, he parked in front of her building. “Do you want to come in?” Christina asked nervously. She had never invited a guy up to her apartment before. The idea made her all twitchy.
“That was the plan,” he said, taking off his seat belt.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I came to watch you change.”
“What!” Christina exclaimed. “I am not going to let you watch me change.”
“Look, Christina, I’m not trying to get a glimpse of you naked or something, but I want to watch you turn into yourself. Don’t you think that will take the spell off both of us?”
Christina looked at him carefully. What he said made a great deal of sense to her. He was probably right. If he watched her take off her wig, all her other flare and then saw her in her regular clothes with only her glasses to frame her eyes then the illusion would probably be destroyed. If he didn’t like her for who she truly was then it would come out right away and both of them would be spared the pain of not getting who they wanted.
“Okay,” Christina said, thinking there was a possibility that after he saw the transformation he wouldn’t want to make her supper anymore and would simply leave the apartment. For some reason, she couldn’t let that happen. She wanted a chance to convince him that ‘Christina’ was a really amazing girl, so she had to have dinner with him. She absolutely had to. “But, I’d rather not do that here if that’s okay. Could I just get a bag and come over to your place?”
Mark looked shocked. “I guess that would be okay.”
“Kay. I’ll be right back,” Christina said, getting out of the car and heading into the building.
***
Mindy was ecstatic about the possibility of being Christina’s makeup artist for the ad campaign.
“Yay me!” she declared happily. “Where should we go to celebrate?”
Christina bit her lip and went into her bedroom without answering. She had to pack her bag.
“What are you doing?” Mindy asked when she saw Christina fill up a backpack with clothes and shoes. “You’re not doing something else I shouldn’t tell your mom, are you?”
“No,” Christina said, realizing full well that it looked like she was packing an overnight bag. “I’ll be back tonight. I won’t be fooling around or anything.”
“What will you be doing?” Mindy asked seriously.
Christina thought about telling her what she and Mark had planned but decided against it. Mindy probably wasn’t the type to sympathize with that level of understanding, and Christina didn’t want to be ridiculed. She doubted Mindy ever let a man see her without war paint. “None of your business,” she said, sliding her makeup remover into the bag.
“Okay, but phone if you’re going to be home later than two. If I wake up in the morning and you’re not here, I’ll call your parents and ask them if you went home for the weekend.”
Christina brushed her off. “I'm not staying out all night."
She gathered the rest of her stuff together and went down to Mark’s car. She opened the backdoor and threw her bag in before she got in the front seat.
“Does it really take that much stuff?” he asked her.
“Yes, it does.”
“Okay then,” he said, shifting the car into reverse. “This is probably going to be a very illuminating experience for me.”
***
Mark’s apartment was a lot nicer than Christina expected after seeing his car. There was hardwood flooring. The countertops were marble, the appliances were sparkling stainless steel, the sofa was leather, and the plants were real.
Christina sat down on the couch and said, “You must make a lot more money than I do.”
Mark shrugged his shoulders. “This isn’t really my place. It’s my brother’s. He’s just not living here right now. It’s not even my style, but it’s a dang sight better than living in the type of place I could afford. The biggest bonus is that I don't have to have roommates.”
She nodded.
“Are you disillusioned about me?” Mark asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I haven’t got a fancy car. Surely you saw the Jaguar Dominic drives. No? And this place; sure, it’s nice, but it’s not mine,” he said dryly. It was like he was trying to pull the wool off Christina’s eyes in the same way she was trying to disenchant him.
“Do you think I’m impressed with money?” she questioned.
“You could be. I can’t get the way you talked about your escort service job out of my head. You really did it for the money, so I thought it was a given that you care about that sort of thing.”
“I only took that job because I was practically starving. Come on, I told you before I don’t harbor any little dreams of becoming a model or an actress. I want to be an administrative assistant and build off that. I don’t want to live a glamorous life and live continuously in the spotlight.” She paused. “Actually, this place is kind of intimidating. You need to know that my kitchen has lino flooring and the fridge and the stove are different colors? We don’t even own a dishwasher.”
“But doesn’t that make you aim for something better?” Mark asked as he sat down on one of the arms of the sofa.
“No. Actually, I didn’t realize how mismatched my apartment was until I saw your arrangement. Most of the stuff in my apartment isn’t even mine. It belongs to my cousin. So, you and I are in a similar situation. You just have a wealthier relative,” she said with a smile. “Besides, I think I’m even more comfortable with you knowing that this stuff isn’t yours. This is a pretty sterile place, isn’t it?”
Mark smiled and moved to a chair exactly adjacent to where Christina was sitting.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said. “I’ve shown you mine. You show me yours.”
Christina bit her lip. He was right. For men, it often seemed like their appeal was based on their purchasing power instead of themselves. She couldn’t blame him for being a little nervous when she was the type of girl to sell herself for a hundred dollars an hour, which made her too expensive for his blood.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a mirror, which she propped on the coffee table between them and tilted toward her face. Then she crossed her legs and prepared to get started.
“The first thing to come off is the wig,” she said pulling the claws out of her hair.
Once it was off her real hair (though short) was pinned down in the front. It was terribly flattened, because wig hair was worse than hat hair. “Look at this,” she said, showing Mark the inside of the wig. “These claws go into my real hair to hold the wig in place.”
“Are they uncomfortable?”
“They feel okay for the first couple of hours, but I can’t wear it for more than eight hours or I’ll have a legendary headache. But it also depends on how heavy the wig is. This is a heavier one because of its length. The wig is the last thing I put on before I leave for a job." Christina combed it before she put it away in its bag. “Next thing to come off is all this jewelry,” Christina said as she started stripping her ears of their dangling earrings. “None of this stuff belongs to me,” Christina explained.
“Whose are they?” Mark asked.
“My cousin Mindy’s. She’s the one who got me into escorting. She owns a lot of clothes, a lot of jewelry, and a lot of makeup. She could probably start her own agency just on her personal stash. The wig is borrowed from the escort service though. Mindy has beautiful hair and would never degrade herself by wearing a wig. She’s more like the real-meal-deal whereas I’m just a substitute for when she’s got too many clients.”
“I didn’t realize you thought of yourself that way. You might be prettier than she is,” Mark commented.
“I might be, but I think that depends on what you think is beautiful. So, once I’ve got all that crap off me, then it's time for the false eyelashes to come off,” she said, getting enthusiastic.
“You wear fake eyelashes!” Mark exclaimed.
“Yup. Not only am I sort of fair; I don’t have dark eyelashes, but mine aren’t very long, so fake eyelashes are an absolute must." She looked extremely different once they were removed.
Christina couldn’t stand to look at Mark during that phase of her transformation. It was too much. No woman likes to be wiped completely clean of all makeup in front of the guy she likes. Besides, even Christina wore eyeliner and mascara on a regular basis. Without those, her face was all the same color.
She reached into her hair and pulled out the pins. She shook her hair out and said quietly, “Now there are only the clothes left. Oh, and these,” she said, reaching into her shirt and pulling her inserts out of her bra. It would be a meaningless exercise if she didn’t go all the way. She dropped them on the floor between them and was aware her shirt was considerably looser.
She couldn’t look at Mark. It was just too hard.
“I’m going to go change my clothes now,” she said, getting up and grabbing her bag. She disappeared around the corner and found the bathroom. She closed the door behind her noisily and tried to slow her pounding heart. What had she just done? What Mark said in the car made so much sense, so why was she panicking at the finish line? Well, once she came out, she was certain he wouldn’t be confused anymore about whether or not he was attracted to her. That would be the end of it, but she might still be able to salvage their work relationship.
Christina reached into her bag and pulled out the clothes she decided would represent what she normally wore. As Tina, she was wearing a black off-the-shoulder top and a brown corduroy skirt. She brought baby blue capris and a white fitted t-shirt. It was plain and ordinary and exactly her style.
She looked in the mirror. Her hair was horribly flat. Well, there was no reason why Christina couldn’t be pretty after her own fashion. She started the water running in the tub and put her head under the stream. At least she could easily give her hair volume when it was short. She towel-dried her hair and then rooted around in Mark’s medicine cabinet until she found his gel. Sure, she’d smell like him, but it was better than letting her hair dry without any product in it at all. When she was finished, it wasn’t so bad. It was just herself and she didn’t think she was ugly.
She clicked open the door and came out into the hall. Mark was in the kitchen. He was cutting up vegetables on a glass cutting board.
“Can I help?” she asked, coming into the room. Mark turned and looked at her.
Christina wasn’t sure how to read his expression. Was he disappointed in her and trying really hard to hide it? What was he thinking? “So, what do you think?” she got up the nerve to ask.
He smiled and then he started to laugh. “You know, this isn’t what I expected at all.”
“What do you mean? How could you not expect this?” Christina asked, indicating her appearance. “This is how I look every day at work.”
“That’s not what I mean. When I said that I wanted to see you change from ‘Tina’ to ‘Christina’ I was honestly expecting was for you to stand in front of your bedroom door, curtsy, go inside and come out again looking exactly like you normally do. But then when you said that you wanted to do it over at my place, I was really confused. From what you said, it almost seemed like you were going to try to seduce me, but what you had in mind was… different. I never expected you to practically throw your bra stuffing at me,” he laughed.
“How is that funny?” she scowled.
“It’s extremely funny. I don’t have any sisters. I didn’t see a crowd of teenage girls first thing in the morning after a slumber party. My mother is a very pretty lady who doesn’t think it’s her son’s business to know anything about her morning routine. And to top it off, most of the girls I’ve been friends with would have died of embarrassment if I had seen them without their makeup. What you just showed me was… really eye- opening for me. I had no idea makeup did that much. Now I’m suspicious everyone looks completely different without it.”
“So, you’re not horrified?” she asked.
“No. I’m not horrified. I’m hopelessly intrigued that you manage to pull it off because you’re right. You do seem to have a different attitude when you’re ‘Tina.' Come here and cut up the cabbage,” he said, giving her a knife.
They shared the same cutting board. He cut up the onion while she cut up the cabbage.
“So, which one of us do you like better?” she asked nervously.
“Well, my apologies to Tina, but she’s too cool to be real. You’re perfect when you play her. Honestly, men drool over you from across the room. There’s yet another reason for me to kiss you without breaking on New Year’s Eve. Do you think I wanted every guy there trying to score a little time with you? No, ma’am.”
“That’s thoughtful of you,” Christina said, blushing.
“I’m very thoughtful,” he said, jabbing her playfully with his elbow. “But, I don’t know if a person could really be as fabulous as Tina in real life. Something about it doesn’t ring true; like a part of your personality is missing. You do an excellent job, but you turn yourself into a dream for a guy, like an actress or a poster girl. I guess that’s why Dominic is trying to make you a model.”
“Or something like that,” Christina said clicking her tongue on her teeth. She noticed he left out what he thought of her—Christina—but she’d have to let that slide. It would be too humiliating to ask him about it twice. But she could ask him something else, “So, what was the deal with you and Laura anyway?”
“Nothing much. She chases me and I keep running. That doesn’t mean I haven't got stuck going on dates with her once and awhile, because I have. It was just never as meaningful for me as it was for her.”
“Why don’t you like her?” Christina asked.
“I don’t know. She’s a nice person. She’s smart, successful, well-connected, and sort of pretty, but I can’t force myself.”
“Why not? If she’s all that?”
Mark thought for a moment before he answered, “Laura is very disciplined. She eats the way she is supposed to, works out as much as she is supposed to, votes, and visits her parents. I don’t know how to describe it. She lives on a tight schedule. I can’t live that way. If I were to get close to her she’d slide me into the appropriate time slots, and I’d just become another thing on her ‘to do’ list. I’d hate that. I don’t want the woman in my life to hand me a number and ask me to wait in line.”
“Makes sense,” Christina agreed.
“The truth is I asked her to go to the New Year’s party with me and she turned me down because she had an offer to go with someone else the January before. The guy who asked her completely forgot about it. He asked someone else in the meantime and he wasn’t willing to break his date when he realized his mistake. I don’t know why she believed him in the first place. Who’s going to remember something like that eleven months later? So, after she found out her date had fallen through, she came and asked me to take her two days before the event. I was insulted she was using me as her last- minute life-line, so I lied and told her that I already had a date so she was on her own. Then I called your escort service.”
Christina nodded. Yeah, that explained why Mark had called her agency. She smiled. It was cute that Mark’s boss, Collin, had been the one to suggest it in the first place.
“Laura surprised me that night,” Mark continued. “I didn’t expect her to be so childish when I introduced the two of you. She must have been threatened. That made me think she liked me a lot more than she’d admitted, but I was still mad about being second fiddle to a loser.”
“So, that’s how she lost her chance to be with you?”
“I guess. I’ve tried to stay friends with her. She wouldn’t be a good person to cross, but if she’s really set on getting me then she’s going to be disappointed,” Mark said, scooting the vegetables off the cutting board and into the frying pan.
“What are we having?” Christina asked, looking over his shoulder.
“Oh! So fancy! I’m making you a stir fry.”
“Yum!” Christina said enthusiastically.
Mark gave her a sideways glance. “You don’t have to act so hyped up. Surely you’ve had men cook for you before.”
“Actually, I haven’t,” Christina said as she checked on the rice. “Is there anything else I can help with?”
“Wash the bean sprouts, Princess,” he instructed.
“Okay.”
“You mean you’ve never had a guy cook for you before?” Mark asked.
“Nope,” she said.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, when I’m working as an escort I’m seldom at anyone’s home. I’m usually out with lots of people. None of my dates would dream of doing anything as nice as make supper for me. They’re all worried that if they don’t show up with a woman on their arm they’ll look like losers in front of their friends. They’re not actually trying to win me over,” Christina explained.
“What about before the escort service? When you lived at home, one of your little boyfriends must have done something for you,” Mark persisted.
“What boyfriends are you thinking of? You mean someone more significant than a nervous boy approaching me at my locker and asking timidly if he can be my boyfriend. If you mean something more than that; I haven’t had one. No grand passionate love for me, and to be honest, I don’t really see something like that in my future.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, because I’m more like the girl-next-door than a hopelessly unattainable escort, so I don’t think it will be possible. I’ll probably date an average-looking guy who works in accounting for a respectable year, get married six months later, have three kids and die old and happy. Nothing special.”
“Accounting? Do you already have someone picked out?” Mark suddenly flared. His back was to her as he flipped the contents of the frying pan.
“No,” Christina denied. “I just mean I don’t have any extraordinary plans for my life, but you’re very sweet, Mark. You’re the first man to cook for me.”
“Put the spouts in." He sounded weary. Christina did.
“So, where did you get the idea to go work for an escort service?”
“I already told you my cousin, Mindy, works for one. I was poor because I missed out on a scholarship and a grant. I ran out of money and if I didn’t want to go home branded for life as a failure; I needed money fast. On my darkest day, Mindy asked me if I wanted to go to work with her and I said I would because it was my last chance to make enough money to pay everybody off.”
“And did you?” Mark asked.
“Yep. I don’t work for them anymore. I have my dream job working for the ‘golden boy’ of the office—”
“The ‘golden boy!'” Mark exclaimed, interrupting her. “Yep! All the girls ogle you. Didn’t you know?”
“No."
“It’s true,” she said, taunting him. “I’m very lucky.”
“And you really don’t hope for anything more exciting in your life than being my assistant?” he asked, looking at her incredulously.
The look in his eyes confused Christina and so did his question. She didn’t know how to answer, but she did know one thing without question. There was no way a guy like Mark would be interested in her if she was only ‘Christina.’ Her answer came out easily after she had that thought.
“Aw, Mark,” she said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t think it would be exciting to bring a wholesome guy home to mommy and daddy? I promise you, it would be. Imagine if I took home a guy like Alexander or Dominic home. My parents wouldn’t know what to do. If it were Dominic, they’d be afraid to talk because he’d think anything they said was stupid. You know, he’s so obviously critical of everything; he’d sneer at them. If it was Alexander, they’d remember his commercials and advertisements and worry I’d sold my soul to Satan.”
“How about me?” Mark asked boldly. “How do you think your parents would react if you brought me home?”
Christina almost squeaked. She hadn’t thought about that. “Hmm,” she said, trying to sound complacent. “I’m not sure, though I’m sure you’d do better than the Figura boys. What about me? How do you think your parents would react to me?”
“I think they’d—”
Just then the doorbell rang and interrupted him.
“Were you expecting anyone?” Christina asked.
“No,” he said, turning down the heat under the vegetables and going to the door.
Christina followed behind him. She hoped it wasn’t Dominic or something.
Mark looked through the peep-hole and looked at Christina. Then he sucked in his breath and opened the door.
“Hello Laura,” he said when he saw the blonde.
Christina wanted to disappear when she saw the look of utter horror displayed on Laura’s face. Why hadn’t Mark warned her? She could have hidden in the closet.
“Mark,” Laura said quietly. “I didn’t realize you had company. I thought maybe we could have dinner." She was carrying takeout bags in her hands.
Mark frowned and said, “Well, if you don’t mind having supper with the two of us, then why don’t you join us?”
Christina’s heart fell as he said it, even though she knew he didn't have much of a choice. If he sent her away, it might be considered the epitome of rudeness as far as their friendship was concerned. Besides, it wasn’t like Christina and Mark were in the middle of a hot date.
“I don’t want to interrupt,” she said mildly, but still not budging from her place.
“You’re not interrupting,” Mark said smoothly.
“Well… if you’re sure,” Laura said as she stepped into the entryway and took off her shoes.
Christina followed the two of them back to the kitchen and bit her lip. Biting her lip as a reaction was mild. She wanted to roll her eyes back into her head in aggravation. She did not want to have dinner with Mark and Laura.
“Hey Christina,” Mark said, trying to include her. “Would you mind setting the table?”
“I can do that,” Christina said, feigning cheerfulness. She opened one of the kitchen cupboards to find the plates, but she opened the wrong cabinet and instead found rolls of paper towels.
“I’ll do it,” Laura said when she noticed Christina’s blunder. “It’ll be faster. I already know how the kitchen is laid out. Why don’t you go sit down in the living room, Christina?”
Christina glanced at Mark before moving. She wanted to see if he was going to let Laura order her around like that.
He didn’t say anything. He didn't even look at her.
“Okay then,” Christina mumbled and went into the living room. When she got there, she saw her bra inserts lying on the floor and said a little thankful prayer in her heart that she got the chance to get them out of sight before Laura came in and saw them. With nothing else to do, Christina decided she might as well start gathering up her stuff. She had left her wig and other accessories on the living room couch. Charming! Mark's living room wasn’t her bedroom.
Finally, Christina set her backpack by the door. It was an action Laura’s watchful eyes didn’t miss. Maybe she thought Christina had been planning to stay the night but had changed her mind because of Laura’s appearance. Christina didn’t care what she thought.
Christina was slowly getting an idea of the kind of person Laura truly was. She looked so regular and sensible that Christina had thought she and Laura must have a lot in common, things like common sense and regular female understanding. But the truth was that she and Laura had nothing in common. Christina would never have barged in on someone's date and demanded to be included. She also would never have asked her own brother to distract the girl her crush liked so that she could move in on the other girl’s territory. The more she thought about what was going on, the more she felt her blood pumping irritably. What a sticky mess!
Christina sat down at the table and waited for Mark and Laura to finish up in the kitchen when she heard a ringing sound. It wasn’t her ringtone, so she didn’t even blink. It wasn’t her responsibility to answer it.
It rang twice before Mark pointed out that Laura’s pocket was ringing.
“Hello,” she said cheerfully as she put the phone up to her ear. “Yes, she’s here,” Laura said, glancing over at Christina. “Do you want to talk to her?" Laura covered the distance between them and handed the phone to Christina. “It’s for you,” she said.
Christina took the phone. Who could be calling her on Laura’s cell phone?
“Hello?” Christina asked confusedly.
“Hey Babe,” a mellow voice drawled plainly. “It’s Dominic. How are things going? Having fun on your date with Mark?”
Christina turned around on her seat and pointed herself away from the kitchen. “Why are you calling me?” Christina asked nervously.
“Well, I thought maybe you might not want to hang out with Mark and Laura tonight.
I wouldn’t.”
“So? What’s it to you?”
“I’m waiting in my car outside Mark’s apartment right now. If you feel like taking a job as Tina, I’ll pay you five hundred dollars just to walk out of that apartment and get into my car,” he drawled.
“What?”
“You don’t even have to date me. I’ll take you home if you want. Just let me offer you a little job that is clearly more profitable than staying there.”
Christina bit her lip again. She never would have imagined that the devil would offer her an easy-out at such a convenient time. Yeah, she wanted to take him up on it. Five hundred dollars and a ride home? Did it get any sweeter? But what would she say to Mark? She’d think of something.
“Can you wait ten minutes?” she whispered.
“I’d wait hours,” Dominic said suggestively.
“Great,” Christina said and disconnected the phone. She turned around to see Mark and Laura standing on the other side of the table waiting eagerly to hear what her phone call had been about. Christina felt a sudden gush of dislike toward Laura and glared at her openly. “Mark, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Mark set the frying pan he was holding on a hot pad and nodded for Christina to follow him down the hall. “Sorry, hang on a minute,” he said to Laura.
With that, he led Christina into a room beyond the bathroom and closed the door. Before the door clicked shut, Christina saw that it was a bedroom. It was Mark’s bedroom. Was it okay for her to be here? She’d never been in a man’s bedroom before.
The room was full of books and there was a desk with a laptop on it. His bedspread was light brown and the bed was sort of made. Maybe no one had ever taught him the proper way to make the bed, but the covers were smooth at the least.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hands together. “What was that all about?” Mark asked, referring to the phone call.
Christina didn’t answer his question at first, but instead started by asking, “Mark, are you aware of the awkward, awful situation you have put me in tonight?”
“What?”
“You said that you wanted to get to know me and I thought that this night was all about wiping the fairy dust off our eyes and honestly learning about one another. Now that you invited Laura, I have been completely knocked off balance. I left myself very vulnerable taking off my makeup in front of you and since you’ve placed me in this weird situation, I don’t think you appreciate my sacrifice.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Laura here, I don’t know how to act. If you purchased me as an escort I would know exactly what to do. I’d just crawl all over you with my pretenses and phony flirting until she got frustrated and backed off, but since I’m here as myself, I am not confident or poised enough to compete with her for your attention. I thought part of the reason you brought me here was to give me the chance to be myself without the charade. Now that chance is